La Mythologie mise à la portée de tout le monde: or Mythology made easy. 12 vols. 12mo. With 100 prints coloured and plain.

Advertisements by Neapolitan booksellers, of late discoveries in Naples and its environs, before the war. A 2d vol. of the Papiri, or Philodemi de Musica, under the title of Dissertationes Isagogica. The following works, recovered from the Cinders, are said in these advertisements to be already engraved, and ready for impression: 1. Rhetorica. 11. De Phanominis. III. De vitiis et virtutibus oppositis; all by Philodemas. We hope that these venerable relics have not been worse treated during the horrors of recent war, than by Mount Vesuvius during the eruption of 1779! Next occurs a melancholy detail of the losses which Rome has sustained by the eruption of the modern Gauls.

No. CLXXXII. M. PELTIER here informs us that he shall devote to literary articles but a small portion of this No. < and indeed (he adds) but few literary novelties have appeared at Paris' during the month of May. The only two works, which merit particular notice, belong to the Monarchy, not to the Republic of France. One of them is the new Don Quixote, by the late Chevalier de Florian; the other, an Essay on Fables and their History, in 2 vols. by the late M. BAILLY, author of the History of Astronomy, &c. We may also class under this denomination another work lately published: The Progress of Literature antient and modern, by La Harpe, 8 vols. 8vo.

The new pieces represented on the stage, during this month, have almost all been condemned. A new theatre of Vaudevilles (which we may call Ballad Farces) has been opened, by the title of the Troubadours' Theatre, under the direction of Citizen Leger, which has likewise failed.

A fragment of the translation of the 4th book of Virgil's Eneid, by the Abbé De Lille, has been read in a literary society; and the French verses have appeared as beautiful as those of the Latin Poet. These also are the fruits of Monarchy.'

This No. contains also two pleasant Dialogues: the first between Prometheus and a man whom he had made, and animated with the fire which he had stolen from heaven; and the second between the same man and a woman, also of Prometheus's manufacture.

POETRY. A Picture of Hymen, an allegorical tale. The renovation of Spring. Ode to the French Nation, written in 1762, by Lebrun. This admirable ode has been re-printed in the Ministerial Journals, in order to revive public spirit in the present calamitous circumstances of the Great Nation."

No

No novelty seems to have succeeded at any one of the theatres, except a piece intermixed with songs, called The tru Painters, of which a very favourable account is here inserted.

Eloge on Beaumarchais. The famous Beaumarchais, of intriguing memory, died at the age of 70. His death was sudden, occasioned by the bursting of a blood-vessel.'

Account of the death of Giroust, an old musician, once eminent, but who died loaded with years and indigence. Though he had composed many patriotic and revolutionary songs, he was reduced to sell (that) milk and honey (which he wanted for his own subsistence) to the inhabitants of Versailles.

The celebrated Italian composer, Piccini, the rival of Gluck, who had been settled in France before the revolution, having returned to Naples, was restored to his former appointments: but, on a discovery that he was intriguing with the democrats of that city, he was ordered away, and is now settled at Paris, and contributing to a periodical publication, consisting of an Italian air, a French song, or Romance, and a piece for the Piano Forte.

No. CLXXXIII. The first article of this No. is extremely interesting, and well drawn up. It is an account of a work of great erudition, good taste, and sound criticism, entitled: Licée, ou Cours de Litérature; The LYCEUM, or a Course of Lectures on antient and modern Literature, by J. Francis la Harpe; 8 vols. 8vo.

The author's design, in this work, has been to delineate the different productions of the human mind, which have hitherto resisted the attacks of time, and the still more inevitable dangers of destruction from their own mediocrity; to extract the substance of each; to analyze the beauties and indicate the defects; to ascend to the source of the admiration which they excite, and the pleasure which they create; and to arrive at length, by this method, åt the true principles of art, and the invariable rules of taste. This plan, so interesting and so vast, the author has fulfilled so amply (according to M. PELTIER) that the execution carries us even beyond the importance and extent of his own ideas, however splendid: but we shall not encroach farther on the editor's account of this seemingly admirable work; as it is our intention, and indeed our duty, to examine and detail some of its most interesting parts, as soon as we can procure a copy.

In the poetry of this No. we have some excellent songs of wit and humour, from the members of a club called Diners du Vaudeville, or "the Ballad-singers' dinner;" by Messrs. De Segur, Father and Son, Dupaty, Piis, &c.

Metastasio's Opera of Adriano in Syria, having been translated by Hoffman, and set to music by Mébul, was at first

received

received with unbounded applause: but, during its run, it is denounced by Garrau, who complains in the assembly of the Corps Legislatif, that, "while the government is trying every possible means to raise the annihilated public spirit, against an Emperor who has gained some momentary advantages over the Republic; at the Opera, they were trying to deprave the public opinion and debase the French character, by singing on the stage the Triumphs of an Emperor." This complaint was added as a Rider to one of three messages from the Directory, on the subject of finance. The censure was seconded by Briot: who, in a speech of considerable length, denounced the Opera of Adrien, though an old drama, and built on historical facts. Briot calls the introduction of it on the stage a counter-revolutionary act, and a capital crime. He then cites several verses; and, among the rest, the following:

"César, regne sur nous, toujours grand, toujours juste;
Et que ton front auguste

S'accoutume aux lauriers sacrés.”

O mighty Cæsar, ever great and just,

Reign over us! And may thy brows august

With sacred laurels ever be entwin'd!

He then read a message which he had drawn up, relative to the Opera of Adrien; and which, after some debates on particular forms of expression, was immediately sent to the Directory.

This No. also gives an account of "An Essay on the causes which brought about the Republic in England; on what would have established it for ever; and on those errors which occasioned its destruction."

Testamento della Republica Cisalpina-or, the last Will and Testament of the Cisalpine Republic." This piece of humour is written in Italian.

A satirical Epitaph on Beaumarchais.

The detail of and threatened vengeance for the murder of the French Ministers Plenipotentiary, at Radstadt, occupies many pages of this No.

Debates on the liberty of the press; mutual complaints of the different orders of government against each other seem to have been the preludes to the partial revolution in the Directory, which happened on the 18th of June.

No. CLXXXIV. (July 15th). Miscellaneous literature :-at the head of which we have more playful poetry and songs from the Ballad Club.

Representations in the public theatre: among which, great praise is given to a comedy entitled: L'Entrée dans le Monde : or, "The first appearance of two young persons in the great world;" which has been crowned with brilliant and well merited success.

Les

Les Si, et les Mais; The Yes, and the But:-or discussion of both sides of the question concerning the benefits derived from the revolution. Our readers will be enabled, perhaps, by a translation of the first stanza, to judge of the design with which these verses are written:

IF, Frenchmen! You were wretched made
By Kings of former times;

And calling Faction to your aid
Has much diminish'd crimes;

Bless the Republic!

BUT, if you drag your tyrant's chain,
And groan beneath its pow'r;

If future prospects shew full plain
You'll worse be ev'ry hour,

Curse the Republic!.

Discovery of a new MS. of the Essays of Montaigne.

The last convoy (plunder) of the arts in Italy, arrived in France. We are told with triumph in this account, that, in spite of victory having abandoned the army of the Republic, France will not be deprived of the splendid fruits of her conquests; having in her possession every monument of the arts which remained at Rome, except some collossal statutes that were too heavy and cumbrous for land carriage: 80 cases of statues, busts, pictures, medals, cameos, books, and MSS. having arrived on the southern coast on their way to Lyons; in the neighbourhood of which city, it was expected, they were already advanced. The Madonna della Sedia, of Raphael, is likewise on its way to Paris from Florence; together with the famous MS. of Virgil, from the San-Lorenzo library. What inestimable spoils for France! and what incalculable losses to Italy!

Plan of a grand aërial voyage by Blanchard to North America. For this expedition, he has constructed an insubmergible Pirague, or Indian boat, with which he hopes to cross the great ocean with great security in 7 or 8 days at most! Many persons wishing to accompany Citizen Blanchard in this voyage, a Fleet of Balloons is preparing for the occasion!!

At the end of this No. we have an account of the arrival of Madame Royale, Marie Therese de France, at Mittau; with a narrative of the nuptials of that Princess with Monsieur the Duc D'Angoulême, an entertaining article, by the Abbé de Tressan, who was present at that solemnity.

Dr B....y.

A

ART.

ART. X. Des Anciens Gouvernemens Fédératifs, &c. i. e. On the Antient Federal Governments, and on the Legislature of Crete. 8vo. pp. 500. Paris. 1799. Imported by De Boffe, London. Price 78. sewed.

IT

T appears from the preface to this ingenious and learned work, that the author of it is M. SAINTE-CROIX, who is already favourably known to the public by his Critical Examination of the antient Historians of Alexander the Great*, and by other respectable productions.

Among the many mistakes which the influence of celebrated names has sanctioned and perpetuated, there is not, according to this writer, one more generally adopted than that which represents the Amphictyonic Assemblies as a federal union of the different states of Greece. It is true, he observes, that some learned men have perceived the error: but, as they have not taken the pains to refute it, it still continues to gain ground as an historical fact. Of the Amphictyonic Council, Amphictyon, the son of Deucalion King of Thessaly, is by some represented as the institutor; while other writers, Strabo being of the num ber, attribute the regulations, which became the basis of its constitution, to Acrisius King of Argos. The council was holden alternately at Delphi and at Thermopyla; and Sir Isaac Newton, in opposition to the conjectures of the Græcian Chronologers, supposes Amphictyon and Acrisius to have been contemporaries, and represents the former as the founder of the assembly at Thermopyla, and Acrisius of that at Delphi: but he omits to state the authority on which he makes this distinction.

The employments of the deputies who constituted the assemblies were, if we follow the opinions of the generality of writers on the subject, twofold; the one related to the religion of the Greek nation; the other, to the contests which arose between different states. The first part of their oath, according to Mr. Mitford, is pointed to what was really the most important business of the assembly; and which seems to have been with great wisdom and humanity proposed as the principal end of the institution, viz. the establishment and support of a kind of law of nations among the Greeks, which might check the violence of war among themselves, and finally prevent those horrors, and that extremity of misery, which the barbarity of elder times usually made the lot of the vanquished +.

M. SAINTE-CROIX, on the other hand, considers it entirely as a religious institution, which never interfered with the go

*See M. R. vol. liv. p. 395.

Mitford's History of Greece, 3d edit. vol. i. p. 233.

APP. REV. VOL. XXX.